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Morning Reflection
June 2, 2025
Preface
For the five years that we’ve distributed meditations, Scripture has been their singular starting point; but I’m aware that there are many issues, concerns, and points of interest specific to our time, that are never explicitly mentioned in Scripture and that, nonetheless, deserve theologically-informed comment. Periodically, then, in place of Meditations, we will offer Reflections that address these matters. Hopefully, they will both broaden and deepen the reach of faith and how it can appropriately be included in the general conversation of life.
Establishing Identity
“We always believe that changing our mind is an improvement, bringing greater truthfulness to our dealings with the world and other people. It puts an end to vacillation, uncertainty, weak-mindedness. It seems to make us stronger and more mature. Well, we would think that, wouldn’t we?”
From Changing My Mind by Julian Barnes
Reflection: Jo Ann B. Jones
One summer day, as I was taking an afternoon walk, a teenage male stopped and asked me if I was a woman or a lady. I was intrigued by his question, as if being a woman and a lady was mutually exclusive. If a woman is, by definition, an adult female, I was certainly a woman. I had celebrated my twenty-first birthday some months before this encounter. As for being a lady, this was somewhat trickier and not easily answered by me. I certainly then and now aspired to be a lady, that is a woman who is refined, polite, and well-spoken. On the other hand, I was not then nor now necessarily a woman of high social position or economic circumstances. I consider myself having a comfortable life, but I avoid ranking my social position. I can imagine that for a number of reasons I would not be regarded as occupying a high social position. Today, I readily embrace both. Yes, I am an adult, but what is far more important to me is how I treat others. I still aspire to be refined, polite and well-spoken. And if I must be honest, I am well aware of when my behavior does not reflect these qualities.
Certainly the larger society has changed in its expectations of a lady’s behavior. It seems to be far more permissive these days. I am continuously surprised now by what is considered fashion. Among celebrities and A-listers the “naked dress” has become quite popular. This is a style that would not have been considered haute couture a century ago when, truly, a lady did not expose her legs. The broader culture is far more open to and tolerant of the use of profanity. No lady would do that. Perhaps the time of the lady has come and gone.
But there was a far more tricky and fluid question of identity for me. When I was born, my birth certificate identified me as “colored.” By the time that I entered Baltimore Friends School I was a Negro. As I graduated from Friends and began my freshman year at Swarthmore College, that identity became a bit more complex, for the term ‘Black” had become far more current and acceptable. For when I was a child it was insulting to call a Negro black. Then many happily embraced it. As you know the language changed yet again and I along with it, became an African American. These changes were not uniformly greeted with acceptance. And at some point someone exclaimed, “Can’t we all just get along?”
And wasn’t that the heart of the matter? Somehow the notion of one’s identity centered in being one of God’s creatures was lost. Some people ascribed to themselves a power that unfortunately ignored to whom we truly belong, thereby leading to the creation of more barriers and less understanding of what our creature nature is. Do we not owe God not just our gratitude for being his creature, but some humility in pursuing the persons he has called us to be? Are we God’s or do we belong solely to ourselves, and perhaps only to those most like us? What might we realize about ourselves as creatures? What might we realize about God?
For the Human Family
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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